Jackson Rips Reagan At Rainbow Convention

WASHINGTON — The United States is ''bombing itself into a corner'' by striking at Libya while continuing to support anti-government rebels in Angola and Nicaragua, Jesse Jackson said Friday.

Jackson, speaking at the first convention of his Rainbow Coalition, was critical of President Reagan for ignoring Israel's bombing of Tunisia, Iraq and Lebanon.

He suggested that Monday's air raids ''may actually drive more nations into the Soviet camp because these weaker nations will see the Soviet Union as the only countervailing force against such U.S. action.''

In what sounded like the kickoff of a 1988 presidential campaign, Jackson told about 500 delegates at the District of Columbia Convention Center, where he began his 1984 presidential campaign, ''I am against terrorism -- every day, everywhere and in every way.''

He also predicted Reagan's ''eye for an eye'' attack on Libya to curb the terrorism of Moammar Khadafy ''could leave the world blinded and toothless.'' Jackson criticized Reagan for writing, but not telephoning, condolences to the mother of the soldier killed when terrorists blew up a Berlin disco. The president frequently calls athletes when they win games, Jackson said.

Addressing delegates who came from as far away as Hawaii and Florida, he laid out a political platform that included a ban on nuclear tests, an end to farm foreclosures, a solution to the African debt crisis, an end to apartheid in South Africa and diplomatic answers to the Middle East crisis.

Jackson challenged the Democratic Party to expand its base and ''to get out of its identity conflict that promotes white males looking like John Kennedy but acting like Ronald Reagan.''

The convention was called to charter local chapters and run candidates on the Rainbow Coalition ticket around the country.